Residents and applicants shouldn't have to phone municipal hall to find out whether their file has moved. I want an online tracker modelled on the District of Saanich that shows every step, not just 'submitted' and 'approved.' While that's being built, we can publish processing times for the most common permits - building, demolition, business licensing - the way Fernie already does. Faster answers for you, and staff freed up to do the work rather than field status calls.

This is about expanding choice, not restricting it. I own a vehicle myself, and I know that given our geography a car is essential for a lot of families. But a car is also one of the biggest line items in a household budget once you add up insurance, gas and maintenance - and building only for cars means more congestion for the drivers who have no other option, plus higher road maintenance bills for every taxpayer. Safe, connected routes mean the people who want to walk, bike or roll can, and that's real money back in their pockets. This follows the 2025 Transportation Master Plan, built over two years of public consultation and technical review.

Everyone deserves to feel safe walking to work, opening their business, or letting their kids play outside. I've heard how often that isn't the case, especially downtown. Squamish's unhoused population grew 17% between 2021 and 2025, from 107 people to 125. More than half had lived here five years or more before losing their housing, and 53% cited insufficient income. These are our neighbours. What I've pushed for: joining the Province's HEART and HEARTH program, one of only 15 communities designated; pressing BC Housing directly for performance data from other communities, because residents deserve to see the evidence; moving the motion that required staff and BC Housing to report the downtown project details at a public Council meeting; and the 60-year lease at 39900 Government Rd that will deliver 65 permanent supportive homes. Going forward, I'd bring the Downtown BIA, RCMP, bylaw officers, Under One Roof residents and neighbours together to work through this properly, keep growing permanent supportive housing so temporary sites can bridge people into stable homes, and push the Province to fund the outreach and mental health workers we need. This is hard, and I won't pretend there's a quick fix.

Squamish has seen real, year-over-year tax increases, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise or promise they stop the day I'm elected. Those increases went largely to core investments: critical infrastructure, the start of a real asset management strategy, labour contract costs, and growing our fire and RCMP staff to match a growing town. I'd rather be straight with you than make a promise I'd have to break, so I won't commit to a zero percent increase. What I will commit to is zero-based budgeting — every dollar justified from zero rather than carried over from last year.

Budget 2026 delivered this community's first-ever 10-year financial plan. That's a wholesale change from when I joined Council in 2018, when we could only see two years ahead. Long-term planning means more transparency, more predictable taxation, and the reserves to fund capital work. Alongside it: keeping our Asset Management Plan current so we replace water mains, sewer lines and roads before they fail rather than paying emergency prices, and updating Development Cost Charges every two years so growth pays its real share of the infrastructure it needs rather than leaving today's taxpayers to fill the gap.

One of the biggest frustrations I hear about this Council - and one I've felt myself - is that engagement hasn't been genuine. Our town has grown fast, and the way we talk to one another hasn't kept pace with how much decision-making a growing town now requires. Here's what I'd change. Monthly office hours rotating through neighbourhoods, no agenda required. Council meeting notices that actually tell you what's coming, plus a one-page or short-video explainer for every major decision: what was decided, why, and what it means for you - because nobody should have to read a 40-page staff report or watch hours of video to know what their Council just did. Recurring in-person community events, not only at budget time. A citizen satisfaction survey every two years, with published results. And a Community Advisory Assembly to inform the Official Community Plan review: not a committee for the sake of one, but a group of everyday residents chosen so the membership mirrors this town - renters and owners, young and old, different neighbourhoods and different walks of life. New Westminster and Gibsons have both made this work.

I know firsthand how much Brennan Park needs an update. The pool hasn't changed since I learned to swim in it thirty years ago. I'm one of the parents sitting at the computer at 7:58 in the morning on registration day, hovering over the button and hoping to get one kid into swim lessons. I've heard about 5 a.m. practices for young hockey players and Oldtimers games running past midnight. So where's the new rec centre? There is no simple answer to funding everything this community needs. It will take real trade-offs, fiscal discipline, creative partnerships and continued grant advocacy. Council spent the past eight years getting the critical infrastructure built - two fire halls, a public works facility, an expanded wastewater treatment plant, an expanded cemetery. Not the visible work people are asking for, but the work that keeps a growing town livable rather than quietly falling behind. That foundation is now in place, which means we can turn to Brennan Park, the library, arts and culture spaces and municipal hall. In 2018, 73% of the community preferred upgrading over replacing, and pacing the work through retrofits has brought in over $22 million in federal and provincial grants rather than putting it all on your tax bill. I'm ready to roll up my sleeves on this.

This is about expanding choice, not restricting it. I own a vehicle myself, and I know that given our geography a car is essential for a lot of families. But a car is also one of the biggest line items in a household budget once you add up insurance, gas and maintenance - and building only for cars means more congestion for the drivers who have no other option, plus higher road maintenance bills for every taxpayer. Safe, connected routes mean the people who want to walk, bike or roll can, and that's real money back in their pockets. This follows the 2025 Transportation Master Plan, built over two years of public consultation and technical review.

My approach to this project has always been to put Squamish first. I don't support it as a whole; continued fossil fuel development is out of step with our climate reality and with the commitments we've made locally, provincially and federally. But I'm also a realist. It was approved by the provincial and federal governments and by the Squamish Nation, and our jurisdiction as a local government is limited. So I've focused on two things: holding the company to account as a corporate citizen, and making sure this town sees a fair, lasting financial benefit, whether that comes through standard property taxation or a negotiated agreement.

Putting Squamish first also means having the backbone to say no. When the proposed 10-year financial agreement came to Council, I moved the motion to decline it. The core payments had no inflation protection, which would have shifted rising municipal costs onto local taxpayers. And in some years the contributions dropped below 7% of our tax requirement; that is not enough to cover our 10-year capital plan, let alone the recreation centre, library and municipal hall this community is waiting on.

I respect the work District staff put into those negotiations and the relationship we've built with the company. But my job is to protect Squamish's financial future, and I'll keep insisting on terms, or on standard taxation, that actually reflect what this community needs.